mass is mass . mass is needed to put on "muscle" . you need to get big in order to get big, if that makes sense. is 40 pounds of weight gain necessarily 100% quality raw muscle tissue only . probably not. but so what. its still what your body needs to do to get acclimated for more size and muscle gains.
about a year or so ago Nick Trigili (an ifbb pro and now youtube blah blah personality) was calling out Antoine Valliant when he was making his come back and Nick said Antoine was too small and should just got to classic physique .. lol, well fuck Antoine at 5'10" tall just got done bulking to 333 pounds and still had abs . REALLY ,, classic physique , wtf Nick you idiot. Classic physique Antoine would only be allowed to weigh like 210 pounds .
my point is, even for experienced guys like Antoine, you can still put on 40+ pounds in a year
does that really look classic and too small to you mr Nick Trigili.. 333 pounds lol.
you gotta do what you gotta do to get big and 40 pounds of mass in less then a year is totally doable